Blog Post 12

How can curriculum mapping assist you?  Do you have one?  Does your school/district curriculum map?  Where would/will you start in creating a useful curriculum map for your classroom? 

Curriculum Mapping (CM) is very important for me. If I was traveling to another country or place I want to know where I’m going. When I’m there or even during the trip I could make detours and side trips ut the map keeps me on track. CM’s are the same. I have my entire year planned out for me. I fill in the detail but the basic journey is mapped.

My school district uses Beyond Textbooks (BT). All my weekly, monthly and yearly units are planned. If I did not have a map I would look to online resources or set up a  meeting (or three) with other Social Studies Teachers in the district to plan out our year. 

Blog Post 11

Do you differentiate instruction? Why? Why not? What is the important for differentiating instruction? 

What impact does it have on student learning?

I differentiate my instruction because I have many different learners both in style and ability. By creating different levels throughout the lesson it enables all students to learn. When students learn, it increases their self-esteem. Once a student has tasted success they want more. It can become a cycle that perpetuates itself. Because they can build on their ability and yet see there is more to learn they will want to grow. 

Blog post 7

How prepared do you feel in effectively teaching your students in reading? Is this one of your strengths? A weakness?

Honestly, I don't know how to teach students to read. I haven't had to focus on this at all. All my students have the basics and I help them add layers with vocabulary. I am good at that. I try to raise their academic language lexicon by restating large words and using them in sentences. I would say this is a weakness.

I was surprised on Friday when not a single student knew the meaning of euphemism. It shocked me. I spent 4 minutes teaching that word/concept.

Have you started to plan to the Common Core Standards? If you have, how is that going? If

you haven’t, why not? What support do you need?

I do plan to these standards. We use Beyond Textbooks and the struggle the 7th grade social studies teacher and I have is that BT does not match the garde level standards. Half my content is 7th grade standards and hers is about half 8th grade standards. It is frustrating but it is what the district wants. The standards I have are easy to meet.

Blog Post#6

Go to educationworld.com and read one article on some aspect of Classroom Management (type Classroom Management into the search box in the upper left hand corner). Post a reflection to your blog based on your practice as it relates to what you learn from the article.

How effectively is your well classroom management system working at this point in the year? What are your struggles? What are your successes?

Reflect with honest hearts and minds!

Classroom Management Reflection:

Based on the Article "10 ways to Sabotoge Classroom Management" found here. The article focuses on small things teachers do that undermine their authority and CM. Two of the areas are things I do. First is smiling or even chuckling when a student make a funny, yet off task comment.  I have to spend time getting students back on task. The other thing I see myself doing is not waiting until all students are quiet. If I have 27 out of 28 quiet I'll start instruction. I know that one will either quiet down or I'll remind her to shhh. The article says "Students who don’t hear what you say will either (a) turn to a neighbor to ask, or (b) follow instructions incorrectly." That is time that I has to spend reteaching unnecessarily or have students not turn in work. Waiting 5 seconds is a good technique to get students ready to learn.

Management reflection.

My classroom management is pretty good. It helps that I have students who've been doing MYD for 8 years. They know the system. It is easy to head off problems before they become big ones. I use step as a reflection moment and not as a punishment. I have the fewest Step 4's of all the middle school teachers. I slam kids into higher step unless it is needed.

I do struggle with about 5 students across the grade level consistently. One of my teammates calls one of them a waste of space and air. I hate to say it but I agree. I struggle with not letting my feeling known to him or the other students. He is always in step.